"Laura and Sorry, Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. The best YA romance I have ever read, possibly the best YA I have ever read, and I will explain why. For this post was meant to be a no-holds-barred recommendation for The Changeover before I got carried away.
Laura Chant is a Maori-appearing girl in New Zealand with a blond mother and brother and an absent father. (The Maori-appearingness is a cool detail Mahy never goes into. I wish she did! But I find it awesome that it's there.) Sorensen Carlisle is a blond witch guy, which came as a bit of a shock to his all-female witch family.
Laura's on a mission to save her little brother. (UM. Apparently, I got the idea that was an awesome mission to be on from somewhere. Sorry, Margaret Mahy, that was unconscious. I can only blame how OVERPOWERINGLY AWESOME you are.) He's having the life sucked out of him by the creepiest toy shop owner in the world, and when Laura goes to Sorry for help, he thinks she's arrived because they have a ROMANTIC CONNECTION. Awkward!
Also turns out, only Laura herself can save her brother. Luckily, Laura is really awesome. In other news, Sorry is the least smooth operator in the history of time."
-Sarah Rees Brennan
I loved Sarah Rees Brennan's post on her favorite literary couples. I had read most of the books she mentioned and was intrigued by her description of The Changeover. The hilarious summaries she wrote for each story also helped.
I really enjoyed reading The Changeover but I didn't fall in love with it as I had been anticipating. Sometimes I think the mood/frame of mind/life situation I'm currently in completely colors how I feel about a book. If I had read this book at a different time I might feel more strongly about it. As it is I really liked it. Margaret Mahy is a great writer and the relationships, especially between Laura & her brother, were well done. I definitely want to read some more of her books.
